1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to portieres, and more particularly to a new construction for them.
Many devices are used for door or window openings in a building for producing a type of screening effect or decorative effect. Examples are U.S. patents as follows:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Inventor Issue Date ______________________________________ 324,519 Bates 8/18/1885 510,590 Dreyfus 12/12/1893 534,828 Hensel 2/26/1895 795,972 Harding 8/01/1905 903,612 Smith 11/10/1908 1,782,339 Campobasso 11/18/1930 1,835,644 Grassi 12/08/1931 2,255,714 Rodelli 9/09/1941 2,884,054 Bryant 4/28/1959 3,977,458 Kuen 8/31/1976 ______________________________________
There is a U.K. Patent Application No. GB 2 054 712A which shows a suspension means for a strip door of an industrial type.
In addition to the foregoing, there is U.S. Pat. No. 3,226,285 to Iovenko disclosing in FIG. 14, strands of plastic tubing for a curtain or portiere and in which each strand has a series of alternating flat sections and sections filled with fluids, all arranged to provide a curtain or portiere. Also, there is U.S. Pat. No. 3,368,304 issued to Ball and which shows a plurality of vertically hanging flexible strips in the form of tubing knotted at the top and weighted with ball-like elements at the bottom.
Also, it is known to use overlapping transparent plastic strips hanging from a support and located to serve as the front wall of refrigerated product display cabinets or cases, as in some grocery stores.
My prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,719,957, issued Jan. 19, 1988 discloses an improvement in partitioning apparatus which is changeable from partial screening to full screening function. There has remained a need for a flexible screen susceptible to low-cost manufacture, but which is both useful and decorative and presents a different appearance from any prior art screens of which I am aware.